Rita's Ramblings: a basically house-bound woman in Fargo, North Dakota blogging for friends, family, and anybody who finds it interesting. I talk about art or craft projects, my grandson (Ian), the weather, movies, books, health, and whatever happens to be going on in my life. Welcome!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

We had sun for days, but not today when I finally feel better and am awake, of course. Murphy's Law? LOL!

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While I was sick Karma was soaking up the sun every morning. I put down her little box of toys and she spread them around on the floor and laid on them. (She's actually over there parked on top of them dozing as I am writing this.)

I've gotten several birthday cards and have been told there are a couple more coming late. I was shocked to get about a dozen birthday greetings from people on facebook, recognition on some blogs, some ecards, and phone calls (which I honestly loved getting even if I was sleeping and miserable). I tell you--I may have been sick as a dog (wonder why they say that?) but it was a really nice birthday, regardless, thanks to all the people who took the time to remember me. I was really touched!! Thanks to everybody!!! :):)

I received this book from John/Spruce in Nain/Canada. I don't think he had any idea it was my birthday, but that's when it arrived. No mention in his note, so I can hardly wait to tell him--hehe! Anyways, he had lent the book out and it had been gone so long he didn't think he'd ever get it back, so he ordered a new copy. Of course, then the old one was returned. Murphy's Law again? LOL! So, John decided to send his extra copy to me! Out of the clear blue sky! Looks like really interesting reading, too.

I could have chosen an 8 X 10 print, but I just really liked this photo of the blue heron standing in the water under that fall tree. So even tho it was a 5 X 7, I chose this one. :)

They have a gorgeous picture of an Appaloosa horse--which is what I almost chose.

http://www.etsy.com/people/AppaloosaDesigns

Handmade jewelry, too. :)

Thanks you Chelsea at Appaloosa Designs!

Since I've been sick since Saturday and am just now feeling more functional I don't have a lot to report. Oh--Leah has also been sick with this at the same time as I have been. I know she missed work Monday and Tuesday. We postponed getting together until next Tuesday. Dagan dropped me off some milk and things after work. Even went down and got my mail for me yesterday. Stayed and talked to his sick old mom for a while and then went home to make dinner for Leah. Thanks, Dagan! I hope you are much better today, Leah.

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While I was sick, Karma didn't miss catching her morning rays. I was in bed most of the first two days (we're talking 18-20 hours out of the day!) and was way too restless for Miss Karma to want to try to sleep with me on the twin bed, so Karma didn't have much company. Whenever I was up she was talking to me, purring & rubbing, and wanting to cuddle with me on my chair (where I also fell asleep regularly). You know how it goes.

This morning I decided to take a scissors to the bottom of the new shower curtain liner. It was almost 6 inches too long and just clear plastic. Easy as pie to cut down.

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Well, Karma went nuts over that piece of the liner. Raced across it. Pounced on it. Laid on it. I decided to hang it over the door handle on the porch door. She attacked it and cried and carried on...until she heard me get the camera out, of course. Murphy's Law again?? ROFL!

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I tried to take a video anyways. There's not much to see, but I had to show you this! I was holding the camera sideways thinking it would be able to show you better where the clear plastic was hanging from--taller view, right? Well, the video came out sideways! That just cracked me up! I have no clue how to fix something like that. Heck! I don't even know how to put a proper link in a blog, for goodness sake. But now I do know not to hold the camera sideways when I am making a video in the future--LOL!

Well, I have to go fold and hang clothes. Grateful I haven't had to iron for many years with all the fabrics we have nowadays. (You think about these things when you are 60--hehe!) Hope none of you come across this flu bug. If you do--run!!

But they just plowed a swipe down the center areas, did what they could with all the cars there, and left.

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Since then, people have had to deal with the drifts in-between the cars...

...and the frozen mounds everywhere.

At least they finally plowed the sidewalk in front of the cars on Thursday, but it's still a mess out there in our parking lot. I haven't seen a move your cars notice yet. Maybe they don't want to have to pay to have the big yellow plow come back again?

Worked on some of the EDM (Everyday Matters) challenges for the first time in 2 1/2 years!!

I was absolutely shocked that it had been that long!! Good grief! Where does the time go!!??

I am, needless to say but I'll say it anyways, extremely out of practice. When I say I finally get around to my many different projects--well, I do...even if it might take me years--ROFL!! ;) It was fun! I even felt scribbly and loose--hehe! :)

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Today I got a delightful surprise gift for my birthday from Iggy!! A gift credit at Goulet Pens!! Whoohoo! What a perfect present for yours truly, right? Awesome! Thank you soooo much, Iggy!! I hope your shoulder is feeling better and better. You are just an amazing friend! :):):)

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Still on the cold side (10 degrees right now), but we haven't had any more snow. Sunny days--what I've seen of them, anyways. ;)

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Oh--for those of you who asked, I will be 60 on Monday. :)

Have a super weekend, everybody!!

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"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Terrible weather! Last night within one hour--besides the unrelenting wind gusts--we had rain, sleet that quickly turned into little beads (like miniature hail), thunder, lightning, then snow, with a little more thunder and lightning. They closed Interstate 94 from Fargo to Bismarck and advised no travel. You know it is really bad when they pull the plows off the roads. I took some pictures.

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This was about 20 minutes after the sleet had turned hard...

...and already there was a white covering over everything that had been dry (parking lot and sidewalks, etc).

We got a thick layer of the sleet/hail that turned into snow. All night (yes my hours are flipped again) the wind was consistently violent and occasionally loud enough to startle the both of us.

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Note: I also discovered during the night that my Preppy pens cannotbe used as eyedropper pens without the adaptations. Bummer! They started leaking where you screw them together. :( So I will order the parts I need in April to adapt those two pens. Live and learn, right? They do sell actual converters for them, too, but I am hooked! Eyedropper pens are new to me--but I love them!! You can get so much more ink in them that way compared to using a converter. I'll remember that when ordering more Preppy pens. :)

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You can see the evidence of Karma's very quick excursion onto the porch in the dark last night. She was quite shocked at the arbitrary return of cold and snow...

...and came racing in. But she still had her wits about her enough to realize the snow was sticky enough for a quick turn around to eat her footprints off the carpet. ;)

Looked a little different out there this morning. You can see the snow drifts halfway up the garage doors.

It's not that we got all that much snow (about 8 inches)...

...other areas had a LOT more than we got here in Fargo--(some places up to 12-17 inches, so this is nothing)...

...but when you have that ferocious wind...

...you get drifting.

Some look pretty cool...all peaked and white.

I tried to get a picture of how this giant drift formed down the length of the yard. I hope you can see it? You can always click on the picture to "embiggen" it, as I read on a blog somewhere--giggle!

That long drift has to be at least four feet high, I'd guess. Maybe higher? It looks taller than the cars in the parking lot, but it's hard to tell from up here--perspective and all that. It is sure awesome cool, tho! The wind was cruising along the building all night and doing some crazy stuff. Sometimes it sounded like it was trying to force the roof right off sometimes! So the drift didn't push up against the building and sits several feet away with such a nice crisp long edge to it. How did the wind manage something that uniform when it sounded so erratic? It's as much a mystery to me as Miss Karma's mind. LOL!

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Anyways, the worst part of all this is that thick layer of ice under the snow. People were having a very hard time getting wheels to move last night. I imagine the plows will be back out on the roads this morning and they'll plow and sand and all that, so it will be better soon. The snow hasn't actually stopped yet, but it seems to be letting up and taper off by this afternoon. It's just a general mess up here. Other areas were getting winter storms, too. I hope everyone is warm and safe. Just wanted to pop in and say hi. :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The temperature is dropping. The wind has picked up and rain is pelting against the window panes. This is supposed to switch over to snow at some point and keep on thru Wednesday. Supposed to stay below 25 as a high for the next three days. Spring ice storms and snowstorms--even the occasional blizzard--are nothing out of the ordinary here. They come and go this time of year, but they won't hang around for long.

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Karma is staying warm in her cat bed. The porch is no dang fun today. ;)

I got my small order from Goulet Pens yesterday!

Whoohoo!!!

Nine ink samples and three pens!

I was monkeying around with pens and inks most of the day. I cleaned out five of my fountain pens that had older inks in them so that, with the three new ones, I was able to get eight of the nine new samples into a pen--tada!

The new pens...

Well, the Preppy pens look like they are made by the same company as the Noodler's fountain pens--except that they have the Preppy name on them, multiple colored caps you can pick from, and they don't have the black rubber ring and touch of grease to seal them that the Noodler's pen has. Can buy the rings and grease at Goulet Pens, as I recall--and I will. Oh, and the rollerball adapter you can see in that picture above. But--what a bargain at $3.95!! Even if I want to add the black ring and some grease to seal it so I can use it, maybe more safely, as an eyedropper pen. They have been working so far without them.

The nibs look the same as the Noodler's pen, but are in blue metal.

Now here's a free Noodler's pen that came with a large bottle of ink (top) and the new one I just bought (bottom) that was listed as a Preppy. (Club special at $6.00.)

Now I know I heard the Goulets say that since they had so many extra pens from all the bigger Noodler's bottles they order for the ink samples that they were going to put some for sale for the club members--and this pen was for sale for the club members. I think it was either accidentally described as a Preppy or that Noodler's uses a certain style of Preppy that has no insignia?

Anyways, it is exactly like the free pens I got with the Noodler's ink. I love them! I hope there are some left when I have money again in April. ;) But, if not, I can adapt the Preppy pens. I think they are awesome for cheap pens. I prefer them to my expensive, temperamental, slightly leaky Waterman.

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I just heard thunder! Sounds so strange in the wintertime.

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Anyways, such a fun day yesterday.

Somewhere along the line I remember hearing how you should store your fountain pens in the prone position. That might not be fact, but I found a box and gathered up all my various fountain pens.

In fact, in order to remember which pen has which ink I made a color-coded chart.

This may all sound terribly boring to most people, but it was an exciting, fun-filled day for me. LOL! Much more fun to talk about than the fact I cleaned and scrubbed and refilled Karma's cat box with her old standby Scoop Away--and am hoping that the switching to Fresh Step is what has been causing her eye irritation and that it will go away now. Yes--I'd rather talk about pens glorious pens! Ink glorious ink! :):)

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I'll let you know if we finally get snow or if this rain/sleet continues. I am off to watch Nurse Jackie--the end of Season Two... :):)

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"You cannot give your life more days, but you can give your days more life."

Monday, March 21, 2011

This is what it has looked like outside here for days. Gray--with a mist of rain that would come and go...

...and has been steadily melting the snow. (What a mess!)

The big dirty snow pile that was taller than the garages is down to half the size.

Spring has been desperately trying to rear its head. But they say we have more cold and snow and ice on the way this week. Once we've had this much melting, tho, we know whatever is still in store can't last all that long. ;)

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Still good soup weather. Made some more of the chickpea and spinach soup this weekend. Delish!

And I got my first birthday card early!

From Wales!!

From Tori, Kelly, Kero, and Gwydion (Mr. Weakers).

What a delightful surprise!! I send early too when I am sending internationally. You never really know how long it can take to get there. It arrived, Tori! Thanks so much for thinking of me!! :):)

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I will end with sheer silliness. I had Leah pick me up a new shower curtain liner and finally got around to hooking it up yesterday. Karma was sleeping at the time, but later in the evening she sat in the bathroom and cried and yowled until I went in to see what was the matter. She wanted to get into the bathtub--something she normally has zero interest in. Apparently she could smell the new shower curtain or something? I pulled it back so she could jump in and check it out.

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Well, she continued carrying on in there for the longest time! I thought she'd get bored, but she was jumping around and crying and yowling like a crazy person. I don't know if the fascination was because this one was clear or longer or made a noise? Or maybe she was just enjoying the echo of her own voice? The mysteries of the Karma mind. Of course, as soon as I got the camera and she could hear me creeping up in the hallway...silence. LOL!